Saturday, February 4, 2017

creating at the AGO

Hubris. I boasted to Anna yesterday that I'd hardly been sick this winter - one little cold - perhaps because of the two humidifiers I keep endlessly filling up in the bedroom and kitchen. Whammo - a cold hit a few hours later. The forces that be are always listening! Do not boast. Now my back aches and my body aches and I will go nowhere today except this office, where right now I'm sitting in a patch of bright sun, and soon back to bed.

Of course, then we look at the spectacularly boastful orange blowhole who is now - say it isn't so - the President of the United States and wonder about HIS punishment for boasting. No question, retribution is coming for him, big time, when history judges him as the worst president by a mile, and they've had some doozies. That is, if the planet survives to HAVE a history, which, if he and his loathsome minions have their way, might be doubtful.

I must have picked up the bug at the AGO, where I met Anna and Eli yesterday morning. What a treat; Holly had volunteered to stay with Ben so the 2 of us could focus on our favourite four-year old. We toured a few galleries, explaining art to him, and ended up at the children's art centre which is fabulous, all manner of papers, markers and crayons, sparkly things, blocks, books - heaven. Eli takes creating very seriously; he and his mother made a rocket ship out of paper cones. I am going to get a family membership so we can meet there on a regular basis to do some actual cutting and pasting, and in between, check out Lawren Harris, David Milne, Henry Moore, the giant hamburger that made him exclaim.

Busy, busy, editing a long memoir for a former student, picking and editing pieces for the next So True on Sunday March 5, including my own, preparing classes; my own work is in the background, humming softly to itself as it waits for me to return. Yesterday, a day in technology limbo. My email wasn't working properly, so there were several infuriating calls to Rogers - half an hour on hold, listening to the same song over and over, for God's sake shut up and dance with her already, and then I was cut off - twice. I finally went down to unplug the modem - or the router, I forget which is which - and presto, it worked again. Sigh. I do know how to make life difficult for myself.

But my old iPhone was really not working, so after a visit to the Rogers store and a long phone call at home about cost, a trip back to the store to get the phone and two long phone calls to set it up, I am now the proud owner of a functional, very pretty iPhone 6s. This slender white beast, perhaps the most complex machine I've ever owned, can do a million things, and all I want to do is text my children, take and send photographs, make an occasional phone call, and occasionally, when I'm far from home, check my email. Even all that seems incredible, let alone all the rest - Siri (who apparently can recognize my voice), the whole world on Google maps, FB, so much more. It asked me to put my Visa card on the screen so I could use Apple pay - no. Absolutely not. I like getting out my wallet like the little old lady that I am. But I hope Grace will come soon to give me a seminar about my fancy new friend.

And now, this old body is off to get recumbent, with, beside me in bed, this laptop, the little phone, two newspapers, and three books. I'll ask the butler to make some soup. Oh right - that's me, just took a jar of turkey soup from Christmas out of the freezer. We'll be fine.